London

There was a 6.30pm conference call arranged between Bono (Dublin), The Edge (Los Angeles), Steve Matthews (London) and myself (also London) to blow the cobwebs off our brains and discuss the reincarnation of the Vertigo Tour. It was good to hear their voices after so long. Edge and I had a couple of lengthy phone calls prior to the Superdome gig with Greenday (which I wasnt able to attend) but aside from that Ive barely had contact any contact with the U2 camp since the tour crashed and burned back in March. They sounded in good form and clearly wanting to have fun on this final leg of the tour. Also, we realized that none of the cities well be visiting were on the Elevation Tour, which opens things up a little.

We had a good discussion, an hour or so, talking about how to make the show more specific to where were going, which new (or old) songs it might be good to add to the set and which songs we feel have perhaps had their day for this time round. It would clearly be a good idea to make a couple of new visual pieces too and I wondered if it might be possible to work with some Australian Aboriginal artists. That style of work would suit the Vertigo big screen very well and the graphic style would probably work with the stance of the other show visuals. Given that the first show is just over a fortnight away it might be a tall order, but its worth a look at least.

We drifted into small talk, swapping news and stories before hanging up. See you on the other side of the planet, then.

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Latest Willie's Diary

Within the bands entourage (certainly by comparison to the crews clockwork scheduling) travel departure times are often a little loose. This morning was especially so, due to three contradictory memos which had been emailed out last night and this morning.

There was a 6.30pm conference call arranged between Bono (Dublin), The Edge (Los Angeles), Steve Matthews (London) and myself (also London) to blow the cobwebs off our brains and discuss the reincarnation of the Vertigo Tour.

I was planning on resurrecting the tour diary today, being the day we were scheduled to fly to Auckland for the load-in tomorrow. However, its now old news that the remainder of the tour dates have been postponed, so Im not going anywhere further than the corner cafe. Its been a very weird week indeed - much akin to driving into a wall.